Knowing When to Delegate

Written by Traci Brosman

Understanding when to delegate is probably the toughest situation we face as small business entrepreneurs’. We are taught that we we must do it all. If we do not know how to do something, we try to get the training to do an adequate job and we muddle through it. We know that we must do things we don’t like to do. We often even get stuck doing things that we down right dread.

We hope and we pray that someday we will have the means to hire out all of the tasks that we find ourselves doing inadequately; and even more importantly delegate the tasks that cause us to procrastinate and stay awake at night worrying about and making empty promises to ourselves. “I will do it tomorrow, I promise, just let me forget about it long enough to get some sleep.”

Does any of this sound familiar to you? If it does than you need to quit looking for that someday in the future and see what you can delegate now.

As small business owners we often look at delegating from a perspective that does not serve us. We think that we have to reach a certain level of success in order to hire someone to help us. This may have been the case in years past, but this perspective no longer serves you; the tired and burned out entrepreneur.

Ask yourself these questions instead:

What can I delegate that will allow me to instead spend the time saved on a task that will bring in additional income? It is a much smarter and wise investment to hire somebody to update your social media, file or follow up with your clients and/or patients for less than $10 per hour; allowing you to make $50 plus per hour during this same time period.
How much is my time worth per hour? For instance if you decide that your time is worth $75 per hour, does it make sense for you to be wasting your time doing tasks you can hire out for much less?

There are many ways you can hire or outsource tasks that you do not enjoy which will free you up to bring in additional revenue. If you would like some ideas, check out our article, Delegate for Less.